Day: May 12, 2009

But then I saw the sunflower sprouts. I’m a sucker for some good sprouts. And then I watched a of roasted chicken emerge from the kitchen; it smelled so damn good. (It’s still no guarantee, but observing hot food come out from the kitchen is about as fresh and choice a pick as you’ll ever get.)

So I decided, eff-it, let’s go: Make a spectacular meal that fits into a small clamshell and weights well under a pound.

Here is a step-by-step guide to my 0.69 lb ($6.18) mini masterpiece:

Started with greens. Layered fresh loose-leaf spinach and sunflower sprouts.

Picked your chicken. Had to be fairly substantial as it’s the crux of the meal.

At this point I realized I had the beginnings of some kind of chicken-topped salad going on, so I looked around for another salad that might give it some good flavor, and settled on this great Greek salad mix.

Careful here: The pieces of this Greek salad are all huge, well beyond bite size, which is the size of pieces these sort of salads should top out at (in my opinion). I picked through and selected some olives, a couple of chunks of cheese (which can be crumbled desk-side), some red onion, smaller cucumber sections.

I added a few jalapenos; this is becoming a Greek chicken salad with some heat.

The last thing I saw were the homemade herb-crusted crositini and pesto. Drool. I went heavy on the pesto on a pair of crositini and called it done.

It was all a brilliant plan, then the crositini slid around a bit in my transport home, loosing about half their pesto topping into the rest of the salad … which made it even better.

I woke up this morning feeling like one gigantic piece of bread after my unfortunate food day yesterday (see the end of my first BLD London Edition post).

So I opted for the most healthful option at the corner deli grill this morning: The Village 38, which is three egg whites scrambled with grilled chicken, diced tomatoes, jalapenos and feta cheese all bundled into a tortilla with some fresh lettuce (iceberg).

The verdict: Fresh and light, with some protein, at least a serving of produce and a kick of heat from the jalapenos. Not too bad, considering I generally can’t stand wraps, think egg whites are incredibly boring and have a blatant predjudice against for iceberg lettuce.

So I missed the last few days of posts due to technical difficulties I had with my cell phone carrier (AT&T, thanks for nothing). But I’m not letting that keep me from blogging now: Over the next few days I’ll be posting a series of “BLD London Edition” entries, on everything from a salted beef sandwich from heaven on Brick Lane, to my new cider obsession, and even a decadent 10-course tasting menu at one of Ramsay’s best.

What better place to start than at the beginning?

I’m of the camp that didn’t cry (or cry out) when most domestic airlines stopped offering complimentary meals as I always thought they were sort of crap to begin with, so I had modest expectations for dinner on my transatlantic flight on British Airways on Friday night. (The only thing I was really looking forward to was the free booze.)

I was so, so wrong. British Airways’ service is so good, so premium, that I ended up mildly embarrasing myself asking the frequent flier next to me: “Is this a typical BA flight or are we on some sort of special premium service route?”

I really couldn’t believe it. In addition to the standard pillow, blanket, headsets, personal TV screen in the seatback in front of you, I found a lovely little packet labeled: “Your socks, eyeshades, toothbrush and toothpaste.” Score one.

Food and beverage service began with drinks and some lovely little seasoned pretzels. I couldn’t find a list of drinks available (always have to scope for what’s different or unusual), so when the flight attendant got to my row, I asked her, “Is there a list of what’s available?”

She replies, “Well, what would you like?”
I’m still curious. “Well, what do you have?”
And get this, her answer: “Everything.”

Score two, a full-service bar, airborne! So I opted for a whiskey (Johnny Walker, Red Label) and a half-decent little sauvignon blanc, and settled in for the flight.

… What an absolute night-and-day experience from my return yesterday on US Airways, where the flight attendant informed me that there will be a charge for the wine (a Beringer’s chardonnay, bleh!), and then tried to justify the charge with some lame story about passengers drinking too much when it’s free.

Alright, fine: Offer one complimentary beverage with the meal service, and if a passenger would like additional, then charge them. But don’t be so cheap as to pass off the blame for your crappy inflight policy onto the customer.